It has been well known that anisotropy in yield stress and the work-hardening rate is induced by pre-strain and aging. However, such an origin has not been adequately understood. In the present study, stress-strain curves in different directions were investigated after 2% pre-straining and post-heat treatment at 150°C in ferritic steel. When the applied strain path was changed to the orthogonal direction of the pre-straining path, the re-yield stress was lowered and the work-hardening rate in the low plastic strain was increased. The heat treatment following 2% pre-straining caused an increase of the re-yield stress in the parallel direction to the pre-strain and caused no change on the re-yield stress in the orthogonal direction. The work-hardening rate was increased in both directions after the heating. Electron back scatter diffraction pattern (EBSP) analysis was also conducted to measure the kernel average misorientation (KAM) value, which corresponded to the density of the geometrically necessary dislocation, on each [hkl]-oriented family grain for the pre-strained and the post-heated materials. The EBSP results indicated that heterogeneous work-hardening behavior among the [hkl]-oriented family grains could strongly effect the anisotropy induced by strain path change and aging.
